The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of reading an original and forming an image, wherein a scanner unit and a printer unit are provided independently from each other and can be operated independently and in parallel at the same time.
There is known a conventional image forming apparatus, such as a digital composite machine, wherein a scanner unit and a printer unit are provided independently from each other and can be operated independently and in parallel at the same time, and thus a scanner job and a print job are performed independently. In this type of image forming apparatus, in a case where a scanner job and a print job are executed as a pair, issuance of a table storing a print control order of jobs in the printer unit (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cissuance of a print jobxe2x80x9d) is made after the end of the scanner job.
If the issuance of the print job is made after the end of the scanner job, however, the following problems will arise.
Problem 1. Assume that 50 originals are set on an automatic document feeder (ADF) and a start key is depressed. Then assume that while the scanner unit in the image forming apparatus is reading the tenth original, a print job has been transmitted via a communication network from a personal computer to the image forming apparatus which is in the document input operation.
In this case, since the scanner job is not finished, the issuance of the print job has not yet been made. A control unit in the image forming apparatus thus determines that there is no job which occupies the printer unit, and first executes the print job transmitted from the personal computer and starts printing.
In such a case, from the standpoint of the user who is inputting originals through the ADF in front of the image forming apparatus, a print result of the job transmitted from the personal computer is first printed although images of the originals which are being read and input through the ADF by the user himself should first be printed. Because of this, the user have a sense of unexpectedness, wondering why an unknown printed matter has been output.
Problem 2. Assume that in an image forming apparatus capable of independently operating a scanner unit and a printer unit, pairs of jobs of operations in the scanner unit and printer unit have been set in succession. In these set operations, such a case may occur that the job in the printer unit is finished while the scanner job is not. In this case, since the scanner job is not finished despite the printer unit not being used, the print job cannot be started and the efficiency of operations will lower. As a result, a long time is needed to complete all jobs in succession.
The object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of independently operating a scanner unit and a printer unit, wherein no sense of unexpectedness is caused to the user because of the operations of the scanner unit and printer unit in reading of originals and printing, and the scanner unit and printer unit can be operated with high efficiency and the time for completion of operations is decreased.
In order to achieve the object of the invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus connected to a personal computer, etc. via a communication line, comprising: feed means for successively feeding originals; read means for optically scanning the originals fed by the feed means and reading images; reception means for receiving image data transmitted from the personal computer, etc.; memory means for storing image data read by the read means or the image data received by the reception means; image forming means for forming images of the image data stored in the memory means; setting means for setting a series of operations in which images of the originals are read by the read means and images are formed by the image forming means; and control means for executing a control to stop an image forming operation for image data received by the reception means, until the series of operations, if set by the setting means, are finished.
According to this invention, there is also provided an image forming apparatus comprising: feed means for successively feeding originals; read means for optically scanning the originals fed by the feed means and reading images; memory means for storing image data read by the read means; image forming means for forming images of the image data stored in the memory means; setting means for setting a series of operations in which images of the originals are read by the read means and images are formed by the image forming means; and control means for controlling the series of operations set by the setting means, wherein when an original read operation by the read means is finished, the control means controls a subsequently set original read operation by the read means, and when an image forming operation by the image forming means is finished, the control means controls a subsequently set image forming operation by the image forming means.